25 November 2009

Funny how the time around each Thanksgiving is now marked with some new journey or soul-wrenching event. Three years ago began a tremendous time of conflict & renewal. Not knowing what it would lead to, and still not fully knowing, what I do know is that God love us. He knows what is best for us, He has gone before us and prepared a path. He knows my heart, my true heart and has always provided in the most remarkable ways. Even now He is providing the opportunity for a new adventure....a fork in the road as a good friend has described it.

written the day before Thanksgiving, 2006This Thanksgiving............

Will be different.With a fully thankful heart, I will express gratitude to my God, who in His mercy has brought me back to solid ground. In His quiet and perfect way has raised a mirror before me, exposing a man I despised-a man I had become.

To now be fully broken, laying out my faults before my brothers and allowing God to mold me into the man He intended. This is what I am most thankful for this year.

And to begin again-in loving my neighbor, in embracing life and in speaking truth.Truly this is a new day.

24 November 2009

Hoosier Reborn is packing the family and moving out of river city. Our offer on a historic farm I have already dubbed "Sycamore Hill" was accepted and now begins the long process of moving, renovating, selling our place.... It is a beautiful place with a woods, creek, large old trees a great old barn and house, room for a cabin, orchard and truck patch.

22 November 2009

Our second of two meetings in southern Indiana promoting the Historic Michigan Road Byway was held Friday at the Madison Area Visitors Center in this historic river city, county seat of Jefferson County. And it was said not more than once that one couldn't ask for a better anchor to the MR than historic Madison, the road's point of beginning. At one time the largest city in Indiana, established as a port on the Ohio River long before statehood, Madison's architectural preservation far surpasses any other location in the Hoosier state. It also boasts one of the largest National Register of Historic Places Districts in the United States.

Me & the kids at the fountain, 2004

I've made the pilgrimage to Madison a few times with my wife & family. The boulevard leading to the river crowned with a historic fountain is my favorite street and stopping point. Other places such as the Lanier Mansion or strolling along main street is just as enjoyable. This year we visited the Lanthier Winery and found another tasty Hoosier-grown wine (I need to do a post on Hoosier wineries sometime).

Lanthier Winery

Hats go off to Linda Lytle, director for the visitors center, and Rhonda Deeg, their Main Street Coordinator for their hosting and helping with this historic project. We are incredibly blessed to have met such hospitable and knowledgeable people in this endeavor, with our southern friends rounding out the talent pool perfectly.

Lanier Mansion

One other comment on Madison. If you recall several months ago preservation-conscious Madison & Jefferson County was dealt a terrible blow when their historic courthouse erupted into flames. I've watched video of the event as the massive clock tower succumbed to flames and fell into the building under its own weight. They declared that they would rebuild the courthouse, but even I had doubts. Walking down main street on Friday we turned the corner to see county commissioners making good on their word. I just wonder if this would have happened in any other Hoosier county if the resolve would have been there to rebuild. Congratulations Madison & Jefferson County....the rest of the state could learn something from your honor of the past.

20 November 2009

That's Hoosier for Versailles. Evidently the French had some influence on this other Michigan Road town too. Again, on my first trip down the Michigan Road in March of 1999 to Madison, we passed the town of Versailles; on the return trip you couldn't miss this impressive and unusual spire towering in front of us, just before we had to turn to the west. So, we drove back around the block and I couldn't believe my eyes.

Here, in this little southern Indiana town stood one of the most impressive Art Deco churches I have ever seen. And let me tell you, I know my Deco. Congregations just didn't go for this modern design for their places of worship so the style is a rarity. Nearby were other buildings matching the style and construction materials of a cream colored, glazed brick. What gives?

I never knew the story until Thursday while in Greensburg (from the below link):

James Henry Tyson was born on September 14, 1856, the son of William and Eliza Tyson of Versailles. The early part of James Tyson's life was spent in the printing industry, working in Versailles and Osgood, Indiana. He eventually travelled beyond his hometown throughout the United States and the world. In Chicago, Illinois, he met and became friends with Charles Walgreen. This friendship led Mr. Tyson to several positions in the Walgreen Co., including the firm's first bookkeeper and, following its 1916 incorporation, its secretary. While traveling the world and living in Chicago, Mr. Tyson retained strong feelings for his home town of Versailles. His donation of 18,000 shares of Walgreen Co. stock, established the Tyson Fund which was to finance the building of the Methodist Church, the public library, waterworks and other community activities. The church was designed by Odle, McGuire & Schook of Indianapolis with the ideas that Uncle Jim (as the local philanthropist liked to be called) had from travels around the world. I've checked into the architect and by far, during this period, it was one of their most impressive works along with the Hulman Building. It was built at a cost of $150,000 and was dedicated in May 1937.

Down the road is another impressive building that appeared to have served as the highschool with the "Tyson Gymnasium" and then across the street was the Tyson Library (above), also constructed in the same brick material, but for some reason a rather ordinary building when compared to the other two. I did not see the waterworks facility Tyson also funded, but will need to stop on a return trip. And man I'd love to see inside that church!

We held our first two meetings in southern Indiana over the last two days in promoting the Michigan Road as a Historic Byway stretching, as blogger Jim likes to say, "Coast to Coast in Indiana". Thursday night Main Street Greensburg played host to a small but committed and enthusiastic group supporting the byway in Decatur County. Many thanks go to their Main Street Director who is stepping up to lead the charge in Decatur County, Bryan Robbins. This guy clearly has a heart for his hometown and the know-how to make things happen. What's Greensburg's landmark? That's right-there's a tree growing out of the courthouse tower.....ever since it was first noticed during the Civil War. Geesh, I get trees growing out of my gutter and no one pays them any attention!

My wife and I headed south to spend the night at Clifty Falls in Madison. Along the way on the Michigan Road are the two towns of Napoleon and Osgood. A block off the Michigan Road is this bit of chain saw art depicting the short fellow the town is named after. Napoleon is a great little town with tons of history dating to the Berry's Trace constructed in 1808, twenty years before the Michigan Road would become reality.

I have a good friend who is a huge Napoleon fan. I'm thinking about buying he and his wife a night's stay in this sleepy little town. Buy a little grub at the old mill, pay tribute to the statue and think about some real estate investment at the Napoleon Bank.

On my first trip down the Michigan Road I noticed this little theater in Osgood that obviously had suffered from years of neglect. What a pleasant surprise to drive through today and see that the Damm Theatre got a new lease on life. Someone evidently er, uh, gave a Damm. (before/1999 and after)

More on building the Southern Alliance for the Historic Michigan Road Byway to follow. It was a wonderfully refreshing and encouraging time and these pictures by no means do justice to this beautiful piece of Hoosier landscape. Please join the effort in celebrating this important route in Indiana....visit http://www.historicmichiganroad.org/

17 November 2009

We've all heard of the "last train leaving the station", but how about the last station leaving the train? After several years of hard work, anticipation and even some desperation the folks at Historic Bremen, Inc. had something to blow their train whistle about this past weekend.

The town mobilized several years ago to form the non-profit historic preservation group and they set their eyes first on the long forgotten and neglected 1929 town depot on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Their major obstacle? Moving the multi-ton beast built like Fort Knox. Surely that made working with CSX, FHWA, INDOT, SHPO and the rest of the alphabet in the can a cake walk. With the unstopable fury of a raging locomotive, people like the Henkes plowed through and what has resulted is something generations of Bremenites, now and forever, can be grateful.

This was one of those projects I hated walking away from when I left last year, just before groundbreaking....or should I say foundation breaking? Working through the morass of red tape there were pleasant memories too...such as meeting the last station manager, who happened to know my grandparents and dad whose nickname was "Railroad Jack" for less than dignified reasons. The wait was unbearable until finally one day the small fortress-like building along with its extraordinarily thick terrazzo and concrete floor inched its way about a half mile to Bremen's entry way park, practically on Doc Meyer's front lawn. Restoration on the building reinstalled two impressive porches on the front and track side of the building. Alas, dollars ran out to finish the restoration but the group has already received some federal dollars to stimulate the remainder of the restoration that will include recreating the dormers, a new roof and refurbish the interior.

Historic Bremen has plans to use the building as a small visitors' center, town museum and meeting hall. This past weekend they had the building open for public viewing prior to full restoration.....and a steady stream of visitors were either reminiscing, or possibly seeing the building for the first time since passenger service ended many decades ago. With roots that run almost 180 years deep in the Good Town's soil, I couldn't be more happy for them. Congratulations!

16 November 2009

Several years ago I was part of a team invited to submit proposals on renovating the "Indian Normal School" in Rensselaer, across the street (and part of the campus) from St. Joseph College. I remember driving south out of town and seeing the campus rise out of the wooded area acting as a buffer between it and the sprawl quickly overtaking the surrounding cornfields. Then, down a long lane on the east side of the road sat this impressive building known as the Indian Normal School. We got a tour of the less than impressive state of repair. The building had a courtyard in the center of it, which I thought was a remarkable feature.

I became familiar with the desire of a certain woman named Drexel who constructed the building as a missionary project to "normalize" Indian boys taken from reservations. I don't question her good intentions despite what we would consider maybe inappropriate today, but I always think that examples of people living out their faith in real ways are remarkable. So while in Rensselaer not long ago I wanted to see firsthand the renovation work on the landmark building placed on the National Register in 1973. And it was a far cry from what I saw 5 years ago.

I went looking for information on Sister Drexel to write this post and was overwhelmed at the information out there on both her and the school:

Born in 1858, Katharine Drexel was the middle daughter of a millionaire banker. She had everything women of that time could possibly have hoped for: beautiful homes, a superb education, a loving family, opportunities to travel in Europe as well as in the United States. Katharine’s parents were devout Catholics who set a powerful example of generosity and personal attention to the needy. From the beginning, Katharine’s life centered on personal prayer and the Eucharist. Her desire to devote herself to prayer only intensified after her parents died, leaving her a huge inheritance. She thought herself called to a contemplative religious order, but it was not to be. Instead, her eyes were opened to the needs of Native Americans and to the injustices done to them. Moved by the scope of the need, she began to finance missions, churches and schools from the Great Lakes to the Mexican border.

In 1888 she funded the school to the tune of $50,000 and it became known as St. Joseph's Indian Normal School. It sat on 40 acres and included a craft shop. Drexel visited the three story building after it was constructed. Drexel was canonized in 2000.

Believing that such schools were a way to "civilize" the West, the U.S. government funded the school's operation. The school lasted only eight years, troubled by the Indian students’ dislike of American ways, homesickness and the demands of school. It suffered a fatal wound when the government withdrew support under “separation of church and state” protests. The building then became Drexel Hall, one of the first structures of the new St. Joseph's College. Drexel Hall's location across from the entrance to the College and at the entrance to the town give added visibility to what is widely regarded as the most historic structure in the community after the county courthouse.

The building became used as a men's dormitory for St. Joseph College and included a chapel on the third floor. This purpose was abandoned also and the building quickly fell into disrepair until it was restored in 2006 for adult learning programs. What a unique story in this little Indiana town.

14 November 2009

Shortly after I moved to river city I was given the title of Chief Tree Hugger. A republican tree hugger you say? Yep. I believe that how we treat creation is indicative of what we think of our Creator. Besides, there are a ton of other benefits that any self-respecting conservative would be hard-pressed to refute, if they were truly a conservative.

Well, for all the, possibly, hundreds of trees I have planted in my 41 years I have never been responsible for cutting one down...until this week. You see, when we bought "the pink house" across the street behind us (now green) we also received a massive soft maple tree with it. This old tree was probably 5' across and 70' tall with three massive main branches that dwarf most trees lining main street. Its age was showing with decay in its extremities and near main branch connections. One day while working inside the pink house the wind picked up and a chunk fell out while I was standing just a few feet away. At that time I decided to have an arborist do some pruning. That was expensive enough. The price to take it down didn't seem to warrant its removal. Besides....I kinda liked this tree.....our woodpeckers loved it and it was where we spotted the pileated woodpecker and turkey roosting one time.

The big tree on the right of the former pink house

But this past summer, on the day we were celebrating my daughter's birthday, with little wind blowing, another large limb (small compared to most on the tree) dropped perfectly between our neighbors' porch and car. He was unnerved. I figured it was time for it to go. The next drop would have landed on top of my barn....and insurance is rarely enough. Now, only a third of the tree was actually on my property. A third was on the neighbors' and another third was the city's-but they wanted nothing to do with it. The neighbor's landlord and I are splitting the bill.

Clean-up from the summer's drop

So, the tree cutters came and started early Monday morning. Thankfully I had several meetings that day which took me away from the window I could look directly out of and see the massacre. When I got home it was dark and with the exception of lots of sawdust blowing around I couldn't detect the change until the morning. There's a big hole across the street that needs a tree in it.

10 November 2009

With a few radio stations already playing Christmas music on the weekends, I thought I would go ahead and debut a site I put together with a great assortment of Christmas music for your listening pleasure. By clicking on the "Hoosier Frost" picture at the left, you can enjoy a selection of holiday music that is very unique. Enjoy!

07 November 2009

This is my last group of pictures from the photo-shoot at Potato Creek State Park; although with the weather finally turning more Fall-like, I may shoot more this weekend. You might notice that sycamore and beech trees are featured a fair number of times-these are my favorite trees. Although understanding the characteristics of all the trees God made can make you appreciate every one. I like Sycamores because of their gnarly appearance, the striking contrast their white bark can provide in a landscape and the enormous leaves they produce (they should be the state tree I've long contended-we don't sing "through the tulip trees, for me..."). I also really like the beech tree. If you see a large old beech you know that you are in an ancient hardwood forest; the twig structure is also unique as is the contrasting smooth grey bark. You might also notice I try to use the blue sky as a backdrop or "canvas" for some of the pictures. I actually discovered this technique when I was about 12 years old. Sometimes it works, other times-not so much.

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Why me?

Just a guy who loves being a Hoosier, and has found it takes a lot of character to do that. I like to think I can offer a unique perspective on faith, politics and culture in Indiana.
Got a wife & kids, and a fine little old farm in the country-simple people God has been really good to.